1st) Leigh
2) Fax
3) bulls
4th London
5th) seagulls
6th Dewsbury
7th Batley
8th Fev

Can't see Havalaff making second tbh..

1. Beaumont's thugs
2. Us
3. The rest/don't care

I can see Fax having a good season. They finished on a high last year and go into 2016 on the up. They will be even tougher opposition for us. Over the course of the season I can’t see them getting 2nd but 3rd is well within their grasp.

I’d say 2nd for us given our recruitment and lack of a decent halfback to partner Gaskell. Leigh should be favourites for 1st given their squad strength. The only doubt I have about them is if Rowley can deal with the influx of egos and potential dressing room disruptions that may be caused. It’s a test of his man management skills that he won’t have had in the past but I don’t see him under any pressure in that department until the middle 8s when they’re properly tested. Leigh’s only real tough league games look to be versus us and Fax. Fev look weaker and Sheffield don’t look much stronger on paper at least.

suspect fev might be a bit stronger than their recruitment suggests. Now they've taken over hunslets status as Leeds A, they'll probably have a few extra players available.

1. leigh
2. bulls
3. fax
4/5. fev/dews
6. london

notice they've announced a few rule changes too. main ones that affect us are signing deadline for middle eights being 48hrs before first middle eight game and dual reg players being eligble to play for both parent and dual reg clubs in middle eights, i.e. not having to stay with one club once middle eights starts, if I understand new rule correctly.

Dual reg thing only really benefits SL clubs as they could theoretically influence middle eight games by strengthening their dual reg partner when they play other Middle eight teams, but I guess its only an issue if a SL side that is involved in the middle eights is also dual reg with a championship team in the middle eights.

1 Leigh
2 Halifax
3 Featherstone
4 Bradford

So everyone within the game thought that the signing deadline should have been brought forward to May/June to stop sides signing new teams for the middle 8s. And the RFL decide to extend the deadline.

Sounds like we've got some cap space to sign players later in the year so I'm content with our squad. It changed a lot throughout the season last year and it probably will again.

I think Leigh will finish top but will lose more games. I think they learnt a lot last season in the middles and won't go all out to win every game in the first 23 rounds this year. I think we'll be under more pressure for 2nd this year. I hope Jimmy rotates too.

We're still a young squad so hopefully the players will all be better than last year.

Does the dual reg thing mean they could play one half for the parent team and the second half for the dual reg team?

I can definitely see Fax challenging for second. They have a better squad than last year IMO and if they continue the form they had at the back end of 2015, they'll be a hard team to beat at this level.

I don't think Fev will be surprising anyone though. A couple of injuries in their team and they're going to struggle.

Sadly, Leigh top after 23 rounds is as inevitable as Gareth Hock getting suspended.


The dual reg thing is just ridiculous when it comes to the Middle 8s. Could have been an issue with Fax and Hull KR last year, but thankfully they hadn't used their Dual Reg link up very much. Changing the rules so players can still be registered with both is just stupid if they're in the same league.

I can see Leigh going the whole season unbeaten and that includes the challenge cup

Has Tipsy Ste hacked your account Roger?

Fookmee Rog can i have some of whatever it is you're smoking?

I'd suspect it's going to be pretty much as you were regards to top 2 of Leigh and Bradford.
Bradford are, in the majority, still the same team that made the MPG. Leigh have recruited hard, however I still feel that the players they've brought in have question marks over them in terms of attitude as well as the effect they'll have on a settled and established side.

Very good post roofy. I really do hope Paul Rowley can keep them settled with a good attitude, He really has a tough job on his hands.

And that for me is the biggest problem facing promotion hopefuls such as Leigh and Bradford. Games against each other and Fax will always be tough. Games against Dews/Fev/Sheffield/London sometimes throw up tough games but other times end in a one sided affair.

It is not ideal preparation for the intensity of the Middle 8's when you can win most matches playing at 75% of your best. The SL teams in the 8's will have been playing SL quality teams in SL paced games every week all season. They will be ready for a battle and used to fighting for every point.

I think Leigh last season just mentally were not prepared for that sort of adversity. We had gone through the season having (almost) everything our own way and then when we got hit with 3 back to back defeats in the 8's (The Hull KR come back and the Wakey 1pt loss particularly hurt!) I think it just took the wind out of our sails and all the bumps and bruises and injuries that you can ignore when you are winning just caught up with us and we collapsed badly.

Unfortunately the only way to catch SL clubs is to strengthen your side but this could make the problem of coasting through the season even worse leaving us more under cooked and less mentally toughened when the Middle 8's come around!

Hopefully last season taught us some serious lessons and we go into the 8's with a different attitude and ready for a real tough battle week in week out.

Somebody said that about us one year and we crashed and burned

That's true. There were plenty of games last year were Bradford only turned up for 20 minutes of the game, but still came away with the win at the end of the day

As we saw last year, the regular season is largely irrelevant as long as you finish in the top 4. For what it is worth I expect Leigh to finish top given the current squads.

I would also expect Bradford to have made a few more signings before the middle 8's so our squad could look quite a lot different by then. I guess it's a strategy with some risk but it seems we intend to spend our cap money closer to the business end of the season. If we play to our potential then a top 2 finish should be achievable.

Fax have enough about them to beat any side, so I wouldn't write them off but I don't think they'll manage enough consistency to finish in the top 2.

The biggest problem is the wide ability differential between many clubs in early part of the season. With many of the games, and let's not beat about the bush with this, being more like, 'opposed training sessions', than matches, the biggest difficulty is keeping our teams fully concentrating until the eights start and then being able to step up to a 'proper' set of high intensity games. In the great scheme of things, though there is a small advantage in being top, second - even third or fourth in the pre-amble won't materially affect the challenge of either club. I think it's intriguing that Leigh have brought in a host of big names before the season starts and that Bradford are, 'keeping their powder dry', until later. It will be interesting to see how the different tactics work out on the field.

One way around that would be Leigh, Halifax, Sheffield and ourselves to leave our games against each other till last 2 months of season.

Yeah, cos the RFL will certainly go for that.

Too true.

The RFL profess to believe that, 'every second counts' [or somesuch and are too much concerned about appearances and having good slogans than actually trying to improve matters.

In fairness to them, everyone already sees the Championship as the "pre-match" to the main event of the Middle 8s. If they changed it to the suggestion above, it would be like the crap singer before the pre-match before the main event. And as much people would turn up to watch those games as do for the crap singer too.

We've had a year to come to terms with the Championship and most of our new recruits have experience of it. We have a realistic chance of top 2 and that is almost essential to progress further. I don't see any need to finish first if that hinders our ability to arrive in the middle eights in the best condition .....I don't think it was seen as a big deal for us last year. I expect to be in the top 2 with Leigh.
As for those finishing 3rd and 4th I expect it to be close between Fax, Fev, Eagles, Dewsbury and London with Fax possibly shading it for 3rd.
I'm not sure how any of it will prepare us for the real business.